Cracked it! (Chat in Gmail) :-D

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Well Gtalk is now enabled from my primary Gmail account. :-D
The problem was that I had enabled UK-English interface for Gmail, while Gtalk within Gmail as of now, works only for US-English interface.

Other common reasons for Gtalk not working from Gmail could be:
1. Using a browser other than IE or Firefox
2. Using a version older that Firefox 1.0 or IE 6.0

Wokay, problem solved, now I move on to more pressing matters :-D

[Did I hear somebody say I'm brilliant ;-)...wallowing in self-praise...tata :-D]

I still don't have it - chat in Gmail :-((

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The whole wide world has it. All my secondary mail accounts have it.
But GTalk is still not enabled from my primary Gmail id.

Aaaaaaahhhhh...are the google guys listening???
One of your loyal customers is very, very enraged grrrrrr...

Ghumakkad

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(Ghumakkad in Hindi means Nomad)

The nomad wanders on,
From oasis to oasis,
Desert to desert.
From winter to winter,
Spring to spring.

An act of benevolence here,
A trace of love there,
A beguiling joy somewhere...
All lost in the dreariness of travel,
In his fascination for the unknown.

A tear as he moves on,
In his eyes, in her eyes, in their eyes...

Would he did find a home in his travels,
Or the road his true love, his open home, forever and ever...

Lovin it :-P

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I'm loving this phase.

Exams (rather academics here) are over. Placement is still some distance away. Library is open, I have access to the internet. There is nobody telling me study this or study that and there is no constraint of any routine exam.

And I'm reading. Reading and reading...all that I want to read, love to read

There is a mess which ensures that I don't starve. I have a small room of my own to bury my body. I have access to messengers, mails and a mobile to get in touch with people when I want to or stay isolated in my own world if that's what I want.

No compulsions (or rather there are many... it's placement season after all, but I'm acquescing only to the ones which I want to).

Occasional PPTs and company forms disturb my "dhun", but I'll give the world around that much concession :-).

This phase'll get over soon I know, but I'm enjoying it as long as it lasts. :-)

Respect the Opposite Sex

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Many of the companies which come to campus for these Pre-placement talks have lady presenters (HR or otherwise) who hold the centrestage while other presenters (might/might not) pop in and out according to the profiles being offered.

And invariably, there would be some guy around me passing a lewd comment. Infuriates me no end and there is little I am able to do to immediately express it given the setting.

The typical justification is that it's "normal" and you're not "man enough" if such thoughts don't arise spontaneously in you and it's just natural to express it. And mind you, this is coming not from illiterate fools but the creme-de-lemme of our system.

Utterly, completely ridiculous.
She is on that stage for a purpose, and that purpose is not even remotely related to being the object of those comments. Get that basic fact right.

A key feature of human evolution has been our ability of understanding the fellow human being, and the respect arising out of that understanding. That's how we've thrived in collective units - as social beings. True, we've struggled both at the individual level and the societal level to develop this sort of understanding, and given the diversity of human nature, this struggle is natural. Yet the key has been to try and evolve the understanding before disengagement might happen. And once the understanding is in place. respect flows out naturally; by respect I do not mean an agreement or becoming the best of pals etc., it is just an equilibrium state decision where all involved defer to the freedom of the other naturally without violating their own freedom and without the impostion of an external will.

By passing that lewd comment, you're showing a complete lack of (plus desire for) understanding, and infringing on her freedom. By disrespecting her, you're disrespecting yourself and the civilisation which has given rise to you.

Individual choice, you've said to justify it. That means you don't understand the meaning of individual choice. At the cost of repeating myself, a necessary pre-requisite for free exercise of individual choice is understanding. Otherwise all the rapists and murderers in the world would be happily justified!

And this extends to all scenarios. By pointing out the folly of gender-based commenting I'm trying to highlight a rampant example of a larger malaise.

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As another example of what I 'm trying to say (in a different context), just check this inane locust-commenting on Jaya's blog ( IV III II I ), a perfect case of stubborn insistence on not understanding despite repeatedly being shown the light of logic. Her patience must be praised.

Apurva's post explains the context, and just check the comment spamming that post has been subjected to!

Top 50 blogs they say...check out

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http://www.newyorkmetro.com/news/media/15972/

Thanks Shravan for the link.

A Killer

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He killed for the first time,
And then couldn't eat, couldn't sleep, couldn't talk,
He vomited,
For days, for weeks, for months.

And then he killed again,
This time it was more professional,
It was less painful for him,
He vomited less.

And then again and again and again he killed,
(He was running up the ladder two steps at a time)
Till the vomiting stopped completely,
He had vomited all his conscience out.

The Withering Flower's Cry

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The flower is withering again,
Petals blighting,
Stalk gone dry,
Bees kissing it, dwindlng by the hour.

There's a lot of light,
But it's open sunshine that she requires,
There's watering everyday,
But it's the untrammelled rain that she craves for.

She's a wild flower, in freedom is her life,
And she's being confined to a beautiful death,
She's calling out through her silent cries,
Save her, throw her away into the wild...to her home...to her life.

Thank god we feel hungry!

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Was wondering [as usual :-)] at breakfast today.

Yeah, what if we never felt hungry? Suppose there were a source of renewable energy in the human body. Would humankind have progressed to where it is today.
Isn't hunger the most promordial of drivers of human progress?

So the next time you feel hungry, thank god that you do feel hungry, and not for the food you get.
[Ok don't bombard me with hate mails for this blasphelmous suggestion :-D]

Company forms...summers and now :)

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As anybody in a decent B-school'd tell you, the forms you have to fill to apply to certain companies are a pain. They end up asking you stuff which is so nebulous and hazy that, if you're the kind of guy/girl who loves direct stuff, it's bound to put you off.

I filled a few of these forms for my summers as well and am filling a few now for the finals. But there's a whole lot of difference.

It is hardly taking time to fill up the forms this time while in summers it was a struggle. :-)

I was actually copying answers from one form to another to save myself the pain in summers, but now I write the answers immediately, thinking is spontaneous. :-)

In summers, it was like I need to give the top-notch firms atleast a little of what they're looking for in the answers, so a lot of confusion about they're looking for was a necessary concomitant. Now it's like, boss this is what I am and this is what I like doing, if this is what you want fine otherwise, nice to know you, tata :-).

In summers it was like there wasn't enough space for most essay answers, now hardly any answer goes beyond a handful of words:-)

Well, one ensuing year has had some effect eh ;-)

Blogroll...at last :)

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A Blogroll...at last :). After aeons of postponing, finally found the resolve and time yesterday to make the blogroll...blogs of people I have known closely in real life at some point in time or the other. Some of these blogs I check almost daily, some more occasionally (they write less frequently :-)), nevertheless I keep track.

There are so many other friends with whom I'm in almost daily contact, but till they start writing blogs...well they don't get the privilege of joining this privileged list ;-). Somebody listening... :D.

Done

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Wrote my last paper as an MBA student yesterday afternoon.
It's over...40 courses, a Course of Independent Study and a summer internship...36.5 credits...20 months.

So what was it like, these almost two years spent in this pursuit...

Difficult to describe. Not picture-perfect ofcourse, not the worst of my life either...no way.

Well, I couldn't identfy with many aspects of this system...but I loved many, many of the indivduals who make up this system. Most of them, I'll stay in touch throughout life...or even if we do lose touch, it'll take just a moment to rekindle the spontaneity.

I made some wonderful new friends, friends for whom I'd put everything at stake. These friends aren't perfect people; in many cases the friendship started out with heated arguments as one tried to force a viewpoint on the other...that gradually gave way to understanding, then respect for differences, finally friendships which stand on much stronger foundations...friendships we'll cherish for life.

I did change. The Ayan who'll graduate out of these portals is not the same as the Ayan who walked in...but I chose the changes which I wanted in me. I did not allow the system to coerce it's imprints on me, I exercised my choice at every stage. This to me is my most important achievement as I graduate out of this place.

In search of truth...

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-the Mandelbrot Set

Creating content to top searches...same story again

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It's the same story but this time in case of web pages. The story goes as follows...

Initially websites created content which they thought was really good.
Then came search engines to help navigation of all this content.
And thenthe reverse cycle started, the content of web-pages suited to top the page ranks, the implicit assumption...the tables had turned.

Just like it was initially reading for knowledge. Then came the exam system to judge the actual knowledge gained.
And then the twisted cycle of the education system bending backwards to allow for topping of the exams.

In both cases the purpose has been surrendered and an implicit assumption has been made. The implicit assumption is rarely true.

Famous Five!

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Yeah, that's what Sugu's named this pic. :D
It's a pic of an older outing, well we were out yesterday again but Divyansh couldn't join and since I have a roll-camera (and keep losing my rolls every once in a while), don't know when I'll have the recent pics uploadable. Till then...

Ecstacy!

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The first principle is that you must not fool yourself, and you are the easiest person to fool.

- Richard P. Feynman, from speech "What is and What Should be the Role of Scientific Culture in Modern Society", given at the Galileo Symposium in Italy, 1964.

I Have a Dream

Delivered on 28 August 1963, at the Lincoln Memorial, Washington D.C., USA